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A Compact Mono Laser Printer

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While colour can add to the appeal of a document, it is not an essential requirement for every document. A mono laser printer can give you fast speeds and good quality output.

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A few months ago I checked out a mono laser printer that had the smallest footprint I had seen for a device of this type. That printer was the Samsung ML-1865W. Now I have come across another mono laser printer that has an even smaller footprint. Admittedly this reduction is just 6.5% but it could make a difference when available work space is at a premium. This latest candidate for the small footprint award, that is until a smaller model comes along, is the SamsungML-2165W.

Available in a choice of white or grey, the ML-2165W is a box shaped unit featuring a stylish curved top and ribbed sides. The printer has dimension of 332 x 215 x 178mm (W x L x H). With a weigh of 4.95kg, the ML-2165W can easily be moved around when the need arises for a general reorganisation.

As the “W” part of the product’s designation indicates, this compact mono laser printer offers wireless connectivity to complement the standard USB option. Both the mains power socket and the USB port are tucked away out of sight at the rear of the unit. A drop-down flap at the front of the printer acts as the paper input tray giving you a capacity of 150 sheets. A flip-out flap at the top of the unit reveals the paper output tray. Just in case, like happened to me on more than one occasion, you forget to open this flap, Samsung has foreseen this eventuality. When closed there is a small gap between the front edge of this flap and the body of the printer through which printed sheets can emerge unscathed rather than become crumpled up beneath the flap.

Controls for this printer have been kept to a minimum and are concentrated in a small area on the top right of the printer. There are two buttons, one for power and the other for activating the WPS feature whereby this printer can automatically detect and set up a wireless link with the designated computer. There are also two LED lights providing status feedback regarding toner and printer elements.

Rather than offer users a choice of toner cartridges with different capacities, Samsung has gone with one size suits all. This is the MLT-D101S unit. This cartridge is rated at providing approximately 15,000 pages when used in standard print mode. It is an easy matter to lift the top of the printer and feed this cartridge into the belly of the unit when the need arises to replace the supplied cartridge.

Having looked at a number of Samsung printers, you would have thought I would have become use to the rather lengthy delay before the installation routine kicked in – but not so. In fact the delays seem to get longer each time I run it. Separate routines are provided for setting up this printer for wireless or USB connectivity. Even though I opted for a wireless connection, the set up routine requested that a USB lead was connected as part of the process for creating the necessary link. An option is given for those setting up a wireless link to include the ML-2165W’s Wi-Fi Direct feature allowing you to print from a Wi-Fi Direct supporting mobile device.

Running various print tests using a 450-word text document, I was able to achieve speeds of 20ppm with good quality output. When images were printed, quality was of a reasonable standard even when the original was a colour photo.

During one of the test runs the printer ran out of paper. This in itself is not an unusual occurrence and would normally have passed without comment. However there is a reason for mentioned it due to the procedure I had to go through to clear the blinking error light on one of the LED lights. Normally I would have expected to add more paper and then press the Start of power button. However with the ML-2165W, as advised by an on-screen message, I needed to add paper and then open up and closed the top of the printer in order for the error to be cleared and the print run to complete its task. Other than this the ML-2165W performs exactly as I would have expected.

Checking out various retailers, the ML-2165W is, at the time of writing, being advertised for sale at prices starting at £71. Replacement cartridges do seem slightly expensive when compared to the printer price as the cheapest I could find cost £46. This printer would be best suited to a home user who regularly need to product monochrome documents at a reasonable speed. The ML-2165W will run on Windows, Mac and Linux systems.

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